About

Poignant Playwrights Festival presented by NWSA students

on 21 May 2009.

NWSA New Playwrights Festival 2009featuring the work of high school and collegeStudents from the theater divisionexplores poignant topics in a fresh and innovative wayMay 21, 22, 23, 24

MIAMI---Presenting a total of eight plays, the New World School of the Arts Theater Division presents the New Playwrights Festival 2009, featuring one student-directed, six faculty-directed, and one newly graduated college alum directed productions. The eight original plays run in a six-performance schedule; Program A on Thursday May 21 and Saturday May 23 at 7:30 PM and Sunday May 24 at 1 PM, and Program B on Friday May 22 at 7:30 PM, Saturday May 23rd and Sunday May 24th at 4 PM at NWSA in the Louis O. Gerrits Theatre. 25 N.E. 2nd Street, 8th floor, downtown Miami. General admission is $12 / students and seniors $5. Each program features four original short plays and is shown without intermission.

La Vonne Canfield, Festival Coordinator and NWSA adjunct faculty, says of the program “this popular festival gives NWSA high school and college students the opportunity to explore new concepts and ideas and to have their work produced in a professional setting,” concluding, “the festival also allows for the community to experience what the up-and-coming generation of theater artists has to say.”

With eight original and innovative productions, the festival offers a myriad of captivating themes with a wide range of intriguing subject matters. Among the works to be presented are “Deus Ex Machina” by Flavia Pallozzi, a semi-satiric view of the gods of each major religious philosophy and how a young girl finds faith – in herself; “Cubanessence” by Monica Skoko, where fear of change and our desperation for it somehow meet in the middle. Other works include: “The Wet Floor” and “Wake Up” by Sasha Vukovic, both of which explore the mysterious – the mother whose daughters have something to hide and a desperate debate on the monster under the bed; “Samantha’s Shoe Palace” by Paul Blachar, size 7, like now; “706” by Mark Della Ventura, the fast-paced countdown to the unknown; “Mother Needs a Heart” by Dylan Guerra (this years youngest playwright), two strangers are dumped into a pit with no way out and no idea how they got there. Can love save them? Or will Mother prove more powerful; and “Paventi” by Patrick Falcon, what happens when the audience gets swept up in the show.

New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts is an educational partnership of Miami Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College and the University of Florida.

For more information about the theater program at New World School of the Arts please call 305-237-3541 or visit www.mdc.edu/nwsa.

IMG_5176 - Photo Caption: NWSA High School theater students - Vernon Gibson and Queenie Clement struggle to find meaning in “Mother Needs a Heart” by High School Freshman Dylan Guerra. Directed by New Playwrights Festival coordinator and NWSA adjunct faculty, La Vonne Canfield.

New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature in 1984 as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts. It is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College, and the University of Florida.